How long of a memory does a deer have?

[Doc]

Any stories or anecdotes that indicate a deer learning and remembering?

[burmjohn]

When you double lung them they forget  

[growalot]

from the garden ...at least one year to the next...

[grampy]

55 minutes ago, burmjohn said:

When you double lung them they forget  

Yes they do!..................grin.

[Swamp_bucks]

Have an old mature doe that will check stands as she walks through the woods. She looks from a ways off then walks to the base of it sniffs ladder/pegs and looks up and continues. Quite interesting to watch her do it.  Last year was 3rd year in a row i watched her do it.  But since shes so good at it i cant ever shoot her. 

[Buckstopshere]

I think that it goes beyond just the animal...itself. They teach each other, whether it is a doe, teaching her young and others in the extended doe group or older bucks showing others...I know they do it. So beyond remembering, they teach their memories to others.  On one of the hunting areas where  I have trail cams... bucks there shy away from my cams...no matter what I do. I get a side of a rack on a couple frames...and the other bachelors in the background. The buck is smelling the camera. They have learned that because year after year I kill their kin. And when they smell my scent, bad things happen. But hikers just gets stared at. I think older deer, both bucks and does know where the threat comes from. They learn and remember.

[jjb4900]

I think they remember repetitive things more then others....

[nyslowhand]

Remember reading an article about this topic written by a whitetail biologist. IRC, stated whitetails have very limited capability to store things in their brain, like we can. Went on to say that instinctive marks were attached to their brain from their senses to let them know what is dangerous, where/who/what to avoid, where food sources are, etc. Also possibly genetically passed down thru generations. Interesting theory, much like the ones telling us what deer see. How the hell do they know this...!?!

Then I think about the bucks that go on their 5mi radius rut excursions and always return to their home base. Convinced the bucks also know the habits and home bases of does from their summertime travel. Then there's the decades of deer filing into the orchards just when the apples are at their ripest. We've all heard the stories about running a chainsaw & soon after deer come looking for browse. Or shooting a doe and the fawn won't leave that area for months. JMO, deer do have the capacity to remember certain things, but mainly instinctive factors like food, danger, habitat... Okay, so that's what their entire life revolves around!

Every deer is different, but in my experience the actual treestands are not the issue with them avoiding them. Of course, once they don't perceive a new stand to be threatening or of any danger. BUT once they get acclimated to a new stand in the area... if they do see, smell or detect something unusual, that's another story.

 

[Tughill Tamer]

I do have had them avoid tree stands. I was busted by a few doe one year in a 15ft ladder stand because of a squeaky shooting rail and for the next several weeks I didn't see hardly any deer and when I seen them they would approach the area very cautiously some even looking up at the stand.

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[Doc]

Well, there are some things that have made me wonder about this question.

First of all there is the re-opening of scrapes every year for several years in a row. they seem to lie dormant all year being washed out daily by snow, rain, frost, etc. and yet when rut rolls around, they become re-activated. And not always by the same deer.

Then there is the new ground stand that is a disturbance of their home turf that they always seem to notice .....for a while. After some unknown period of time, they begin to accept the structure as part of their habitat.

Then there is the times that you accidentally bump that buck out of his bed. How long if ever before he will re-use that area as his bedding sanctuary?

It is things like this that make me wonder about how finely tuned and developed the actual thinking and remembering and learning processes that these critters are. 

Edited September 30, 2017 by Doc

[The_Field_Ager]

Then there are the videos of orphan doe raised by people who return to introduce their fawns and hang out for years afterward

[Larry]

Here is how long a deer's memory is: hart lung shot memory is about 10 sec.

Head shot a deer memory is 0 sec. Any questions.

 

Edited October 3, 2017 by Larry

[NFA-ADK]

I think young ones have ADD but older doe in the 2 plus range start to get smart and do remember, check and teach.  That is why those are the deer you need to target.  They tend to know all your spots after a while and peg you every time.  I never targeted doe until one kept on busting me, it kind of made me mad.   3 years later I hunted the same location in cover and she busted me hard core from about 7 yards away and taught the daughter about me, lol.   Lost access to the area as the property was sold.